September 2017 Blog Posts (30)

Sreeni: Prof. Kumar, one of my religious friends asked me about the real benefit of an Atheistic & Secular outlook. All I could think of and say was this: “The journey toward Atheism is a quest for the truth, truth which can be empirically tested and for which you can gather evidence, however distressing & frightening the truth might be. It could be the discovery that we humans are all alone, there are no souls, no afterlife & no god(s) to help us”.

A “Holy War” is the same as being “pretty ugly”, it is an oxymoron used as a fancy suit to dress up a pig of human behavior that under any circumstances would be viewed as primitive, animalistic and bloodthirsty.

All my working life I was an atheist in the closet simply because my bosses & colleagues were of the religious kind, intolerant of atheists and I didn't wish to rock the boat.

But fast-forward to 2017 CE.

Place is Mysore, India and I am 80 years young. I can now safely call myself an atheist morphed into a secular humanist, after 40 years of deep study of cosmology, biological evolution, anthropology, evolutionary psychology, comparative religion,…

I am comfortable with not having answers to everything. By temperament, I have a high tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty. But many people suffer cognitive dissonance when they face uncertainties and probabilistic world models, and they feel the need to close that loop with a definitive answer, regardless of how intellectually indefensible it may be.

This low tolerance for uncertainty in many others probably has an evolutionary origin related to the fact that in the Paleolithic…

There is something marvelously predictable about human behavior when under duress or living with general anxiety. If day in and day out you're worried about your job or your safety, if every time you open the door a new BIG problem is there to greet you, if you can't keep up with the onslaught of drama, if you don't even understand a good bit of what is being said…

Normally, I stay out of politics but Saturday Donald Trump jumped into an area that he has no understanding of and as a black man I was peeved enough to write this. I hate to bother you with it but I've posted it…

ti's as if Professor Ginsberg had a crystal ball the way he describes today's insanity 25 year ago. Just like my Youtube video on the “endmeme” it shows how belief in the second coming is very dangerous for the entire planet and the future of the world. Gog and Magog, it shows how Biblical belief can turn human brains into mishmash. I hope President Trump doesn't eventually come to the same conclusion: He needed a bomb.…

You know how some religions try to micromanage your life - like press your head to the ground 45 times a day and eat this not that. You thought a secular lifestyle would liberate you?

Today I had to replace my electric toothbrush. The only models available with circular action are designed for corporate micromanagement of my brushing technique. There are none without such "features".

A helpful on-handle timer stutters every 30 seconds to let you know when it’s time…

Most countries import goods from all over the world. We love exotic fruits that are out of season. We drive foreign cars that continually create competition for manufacturers. We wear clothing that was made by people from the other side of the planet. But did you know that nuns and priests are being imported as well?

Revelations is easily one of the most controversial books in the Bible because of it's phantasmagoric and hallucinatory imagery as well as its catastrophic end of the world scenarios. Elaine Pagels brings together a book that is a literary mess as well as Halloween childishness. Nevertheless, her research into its history is impeccable.

It is difficult to bring together a book, such as Revelations, that is at…

My Story Part 2 This series is not told in a chronological order but this is one of my first encounters with concrete danger in Syria during the first months of the war. My bad luck landed me into working in the local TV station in the south of Syria, a TV station that had no political programs just boring talk shows and ”entertainment” which I was forced to endure 8 hours a day all day every day even on holidays. I was the Supervisor Engineer/Technician and the deputy of this…

They've been around ever since humans discovered how easy it is to trick someone else into meeting their needs — be it giving them money, service or adoration. Although scamming folks is not solely the domain of the religious nor do only the superstitious succumb to such slick dicks, the ordained charlatan is a particularly loathsome critter.…

For all their sanctimonious talk of pro-life, the Evangelical Right likes nothing better than a good war. When the bombs start falling and the bullets flying, the Christian Right becomes orgasmic at the prospect of death and destruction as many believe that war with North Korea will lead to Armageddon predicted the…